New Golden Investment: Wal-Mart (WMT)

Wouldn’t it be nice to buy investments that you could not lose money on and that only had upside. While we are wishing why don’t we add in predictable earnings, predictable dividends and, of coarse, we don’t want to pay a premium for this investment. Does this sound unrealistic? Maybe, but we can have the next best thing – a Golden Investment. So what exactly is a Golden Investment?

Golden Investments

The concept did not originate with me, and others have different names for it, including ‘zero-basis stock.’ I don’t care for that name since, in reality it is nearly impossible to hold a stock with zero basis (at least the way the IRS calculates basis). A Golden Investment is one in which I have fully recovered my entire investment either through dividends or from partial liquidation or a combination of both.

Golden Investments Portfolio

I am pleased to announce that Wal-Mart (WMT) has now earned Golden Investment status. With this month’s dividend, along with prior sales and dividends received over the years, cash received from my WMT investment now account for 100.8% of my original investment.

In my income portfolio, I am currently holding these Golden Investments with several more going Golden in the next 24 months:

Main Street Capital (MAIN) | YOC: 10.5% | Current Yield: 7.3%

This stock was originally purchased in July 2012. I never bought any more, but just collected the dividends. It went Golden in February 2022.

AbbVie Inc. (ABBV) | YOC: 18.2% | Current Yield: 3.6%
This stock was originally purchased in January 2013. With two additional purchases in 2013. I have been collecting dividends every since. It went Golden in August 2022.

Clough Global Equity Fund (GLQ) | YOC: 10.6% | Current Yield: 20.8%
This stock was originally purchased in June 2012. With one additional purchases in 2013. I have been collecting dividends every since. It went Golden in August 2022. Note: This is a risky investment that I nearly sold several times.

Microsoft (MSFT) | YOC: 9.8% | Current Yield: 1.2%
This stock was originally purchased in October 2011. With several additional purchases after that. I have been collecting dividends every since. It went Golden in October 2022.

Wal-Mart (WMT) | YOC: 3.8% | Current Yield: 1.5%
This stock was originally purchased in July 2007. With several additional purchases and sales after that. I have been collecting dividends since the original purchase. It went Golden in January 2023.

Going Forward

I plan to invest a large portion of the dividends received from some of these investments back into the same securities, but never so much as to eliminate their Golden status. It will not be an automatic investment, but discretionary in timing and in amount.

Full Disclosure: Long MAIN, ABBV, GLQ, MSFT, WMT,

– Seeding A Forest Of Dividend Growth Stocks

– Dividends Are Gold in a Down Market

– 5 Stocks With A Strong Cash To Dividend Coverage

– Increasing Dividend Yield Part IV: Bonds